Most of us have had that horrible experience of opening a phone bill only to find that it's way, way more than expected. Fortunately the FCC has taken pity, and is now working with carriers to instigate a customer alert scheme to warn you about additional charges before they happen.

The plan is to send free alerts to your mobile—about voice, data, SMS, and international roaming quotas—first when you're nearing your contract's limit, and then another as soon as you exceed it. It's set to be rolled out in part by October, and then completely, across every US carrier, by 2013.

The table on the left shows which carriers currently send out these kinds of alerts; in the future, the service should cover over 97 per cent of US customers. And what's great is you won't have to worry about setting it up—the scheme should roll out automatically. [FCC via PhoneScoop]